11.20.2008

"Official music video for Grandaddy's song "Jed's Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)." Jeddy-3, a humanoid robot built from spare parts, is a recurring character in Grandaddy's 2000 album "The Sophtware Slump." According to Grandaddy, before Jed's system crashed he wrote poems. Poems for no one.

I programmed this entirely in Applesoft BASIC on a vintage 1979 Apple ][+ with 48K of RAM -- a computer so old it has no hard drive, mouse up/down arrow keys, and only types in capitals. First open-source music video, code available on website. Cinematography by Jeff Bernier. "

In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.

Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS' "Sixty Minutes" on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tick, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth.

But Mr. Obama's decision to use complete sentences in his public pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring.

According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it "alienating" to have a President who speaks English as if it were his first language."Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement," says Mr. Logsdon. "If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist."

The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences in his speeches, the public may find itself saying, "Okay, subject, predicate, subject predicate - we get it, stop showing off."The President-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said.

"Shredding five years worth of drawings, lyrics, photos, sketches, prints, reading material, official documents and some books. A decision to go completely digital combined with the urge to travel light made me do it. Had to move 1300 kilometers south with a minimal budget. Shot with a Eos 400 D and a crappy lens.

The song is made from two samples, one of a dying printer recorded by a guy called Melack at freesound projects and the other is a shredder sample by Roscoetoon also found on the same site. If you have questions or want to know more about my art, go to oolf.net"

Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) has been on my mind ever since the 2000 election. I think it's probably the best solution to some of our political woes in this country. It will allow other parties to get involved in American politics and give voters true choices. Barack Obama is a supporter of IRV as is Howard Dean.

Help me spread the word about it. If anyone is interested we can try to get the UGA student body government to implement it as an example to the city of Athens. It's a great way to draw attention to it, as the media will cover such an occurrence. The big push among IRV supporters is on the local level. A bottom up strategy. It's been implemented around the country.

11.08.2008

I've read about this curator before. History as the last continent for exploration for post-production artists sounds exciting.
I sometimes wonder what else is there to explore. Globalization is making the world a smaller place to inhabit, as it erodes our notions of physical space. Transportation and communications have amazingly evolved. One can send a message faster and farther than before. It's only a matter of time before we colonize the outer space and cyberspace as well.
Time seems the be the only dimension that we still can't wrap our minds around. History may be a disposible landfill of culture, but what about the future? Do we prepare for the dystopias Philip K. Dick speculated will arrive?